Jinah Park, Ayoung Kim, Yoonhee Kim, Minhyeok Choi, Tae Ho Yoon, Cinoo Kang, Hee Jung Kang, Jieun Oh, Michelle L Bell, Ho Kim, Whanhee Lee
BACKGROUND: Despite extensive findings on the hazardous impacts of environmental heat exposure, little is known about the effect on people with disabilities. This study aimed to estimate the association between environmental heat exposure and emergency department admissions for people with disabilities compared with people without disabilities. METHODS: In this nationwide, case-crossover study, we linked data on emergency department admissions (cases) for any cause in the warm season in South Korea from the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS)-National Sample Cohort database (a nationally representative database of 1 million systematically sampled beneficiaries covering all ages) from Jan 1, 2002, to Dec 31, 2019, and short-term daily mean temperature exposure (measured via Google Earth Engine at a 9 km spatial grid, aggregated to district)...
April 2024: Lancet. Planetary Health